


Stargazing

by harpydora



Category: Friends at the Table (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Character Study, Introspection, Multi, Other, Post-Canon, Season: COUNTER/Weight, brief mention of Aria/Jacqui
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-26
Updated: 2020-02-26
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:47:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22911205
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harpydora/pseuds/harpydora
Summary: Snapshots of the ways two ordinary people love a Divine, and the ways in which the Divine loves them back.
Relationships: AuDy/Cassander Timaeus Berenice/Mako Trig
Comments: 4
Kudos: 28
Collections: Secret Samol 2019





	Stargazing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [damientiamat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/damientiamat/gifts).



> Happy Secret Samol, damientiamat! I'm so sorry this pinch-hit took so long; I had some medical issues crop up that kept me from working on this for a bit. But we're here now and it's done! The request I chose was "AuDy/anyone, what it's like to love a divine," which was a request that I gravitated to _immediately_. I got a little introspective with it, but I think it works okay. I hope you enjoy!

Mako lounged on the sofa, a beat up old thing that they'd taken from Aria when she had redecorated her and Jacqui's apartment in preparation for the kiddos. He had too many memories associated with the thing to let it go in the recycling. His feet dangled over the sofa's arm, and his back rested against the warm, solid metal of AuDy's current chassis. On the TV, a special marathon of that old Harry Potter series played, but it was the Diasporan remakes starring Metric Amber in the title role.

(Normally Cass was kind of a stick in the mud when it came to the classics, but Mako agreed with them that the remakes weren't very good. He'd spent the past hour tuning it out. Theoretically, he could change the channel, but that would require getting up and stopping work on his current project. He was totally in the zone and he was pretty sure AuDy didn't care.)

AuDy shifted behind him. Their hand came to rest on Mako's chest, their arm bent at an awkward angle. If an organic person were to try to maintain the position, their arm would probably fall asleep or cramp. A tiny advantage of being in a robot body, Mako supposed. 

Unfortunately, the gesture—however well-meant—broke Mako's concentration. He would have been kinda pissed if this weren't such an uncharacteristic show of affection. Using one hand, he swiped away the mesh art he'd been working on for one of their walls, then tilted his head back to kinda-sorta try to look at AuDy. He couldn't do it without breaking his neck, but it was the thought that counted. "What's up?" he asked. 

From Mako's vantage point, AuDy didn't move or give any indication that their attention had shifted to him. Well, beyond the hand resting on his chest. "Nothing is up," they replied. 

Mako rolled his eyes. Typical AuDy non-response. Oh well, his interest was piqued now. "Something's _definitely_ up," he said. He squirmed around so he could face AuDy properly—having the added effect of shifting AuDy's hand to their back—and set his chin on their shoulder. He could only get away with this with them; Cass always bitched about how sharp his chin was too much. "C'mon, tell me." 

"There is nothing," AuDy reiterated, though their hand remained where it was. 

"Man, they shoulda called you 'the Divine Tight-Lipped-Ness," Mako said, raising one hand to poke AuDy in the side of their head. Before he could get within an inch of touching them, they took his hand with their other one and placed it firmly in their lap. Unlike the barrel of their chest, the metal or their palm was chill against the back of his hand. 

"I do not have lips," AuDy said. They were being purposely obtuse and they both knew it. 

Mako rolled his eyes. "Okay. How 'bout the Divine Stubbornness?" 

He was pretty sure AuDy would have sighed in exasperation if they'd had lungs. "You talk too much." 

"You know you love me," Mako needled, grinning. 

AuDy didn't dignify Mako's remark with a response. Typical. But the fact that they didn't bother to deny it wasn't lost on Mako. His grin only grew wider. "Ha!" he crowed. "I knew it! All that training about Divines and stuff paid off. I've _totally_ got your number." 

"You dropped out," AuDy pointed out flatly. Not that their tone was usually anything other than flat, but Mako could tell this was intentional. 

He couldn't lean back in the position he was in without surgically removing his spine—or, more importantly, taking his hand back—so he settled for making an indignant huff. "I still know stuff about Divines! Like, I know you care about me." 

Again, AuDy fell quiet, neither confirming nor denying. This silence felt different, stretched on a little longer. It felt heavier, somehow. 

It was too much. Mako couldn't help but break it. "Hey, whoa, don't take that the wrong way. Maybe I was made to fight Divines or whatever, but none of that means anything. I care about you, too." 

"You do," AuDy agreed without hesitation. As close to vocal reciprocation as Mako was going to get. Which was fine, really. Mako wasn't exactly the most emotionally nuanced person in the world, and he knew that. But he also knew enough to read between the lines and catch AuDy's meaning.

The position he was in had grown uncomfortable, and without his work to distract him, the awkward pubescent tones of Metric Amber had started to grate. Mako wiggled out of AuDy's grasp to snag the remote for the view screen. He changed the channel to some documentary about the denizens of the deepest Apostolosian oceans. It wasn't anything he gave a shit about but the narrator sounded nice. 

Then he snuggled up against AuDy's side with his legs tucked under him. AuDy shifted, draped one arm over his shoulder so they once again had their hand on his chest. Mako glanced at them out of the corner of his eye. "You good?"

AuDy made a non-committal noise but did not move further.

Satisfied and feeling a little bit of warmth—just a little, he wasn't going to go overboard with his emotions here—Mako settled in and resumed his work.

*

When AuDy cornered them, Cass was too consumed with kneading bread dough to notice them at first. There was an almost meditative quality to feeling the dough under their fingers, even though it was sticky and could probably use some more flour. It took a little less concentration than chopping vegetables, which was one of the reasons they'd decided to try their hand at baking in the wake of everything. They weren't good at it yet, but… 

"Cass," AuDy said without preamble, snapping them out of their reverie. 

Cass looked up from their current task. "Yeah?"

"You are aware that I am a Divine." It was not a question. 

"Yeah…" Cass said slowly. They wiped their forehead with the back of their hand and immediately regretted it; they had surely smeared flour across it. Oh well. AuDy wasn't Mako and wouldn't give them shit about it. 

"You hate Divines," AuDy continued. "You said so many times when we worked together in the Chime."

The line of conversation threw Cass, and they scrambled to formulate a response. "Uh. I mean. I wouldn't say I _hate_ them. Integrity and Sokrates seem to be doing pretty good, and it wasn't like I could avoid diplomacy with them while I was still Apokine."

They made to wipe their forehead again but stopped themself before they repeated the mistake. Instead, they scowled. "But the Diaspora never did Apostolos any favors, and Euanthe _did_ almost die on the Diasporan front."

AuDy paused. Rephrased their statement: "You do not like Divines."

Cass weighed their options carefully. While they had no clue where AuDy was going with this, they felt certain they needed to proceed with caution. "Yeah. I guess you could say that." 

"But you don't dislike me." 

"Uh. I. I'd, um, say it's a little stronger than _that,_ " Cass stammered

AuDy tilted their head. It was still weird to see them do things like this; Cass had long since gotten used to the modified body language AuDy had adopted to get around the physical limitations of the old Automated Dynamics unit. That AuDy had taken so well to more "standard" body language was… hard to get accustomed to. 

They kept pushing. "What is different? I am the Divine Discovery. There is no denying this." 

Cass felt their cheeks grow hot. "It just _is,_ okay?" they protested. "You're not some—some random Divine, going through space, telling people what to do. You're more than that. You're _you._ You're a pilot and a hero. And—and more than anything, you're my friend. I trust you." The last three words came out far quieter than Cass had intended.

"I thought we were more than friends," AuDy pointed out placidly. 

"We are! We are," Cass spluttered, caught a little flat-footed. It wasn't often that either of them addressed their relationship head-on. "I just—I mean that you're my friend first. You've always been my friend, whatever else happened. Whatever else you—we—are." 

AuDy fell silent, though their head remained cocked to the side. The only sound Cass could hear was their own breathing. AuDy's current chassis was new and sleek and had far more quiet internal workings than their previous one. That, too, was a little unnerving. 

Finally, AuDy straightened their posture and nodded. "I see." 

"You see?" Cass echoed. Something twisted in the pit of their stomach. Even having known AuDy for over a decade, they could still be so hard to read. An artifact of existing for eighty millennia, perhaps. 

"You can accept me because you met me before I knew what I was," AuDy said. "That I am also a Divine does not factor into your attachment to me." 

"I guess you could say that," Cass agreed.. 

"You know that this will not change," they said. "I will always be myself and the Divine Discovery. I have existed for tens of thousands of years." 

"Yeah, I get that," Cass said. "But that doesn't matter. You are who you are and… who that is is my partner."

AuDy nodded, seemingly satisfied. "Yes."

There was a long pause before Class cleared their throat. "Uh, was that all you wanted?" 

"No," AuDy said with a shake of their head. "I will keep you company while you bake." 

"Okay," Cass said. They turned their attention back to the dough under their palms: it was still a little sticky and could still use some flour. That hadn't changed during their conversation with AuDy. "Well, while you're here, you might as well help."

*

Mako found them on the tiny balcony attached to their apartment. They were up high enough that much of Centralia's bustling entertainment district was laid bare in all of its glittering glory below them, but AuDy's head was tipped back and their attention was fixed on the curve of the dome above them. It had been programmed not to reflect the light pollution from below and instead project an approximation of the stars above, but it was a pale imitation. 

They didn't lower their gaze when Mako stepped through the open sliding glass door, but they did gesture to the wooden chair next to where they sat. Mako closed the door behind himself, flung himself into the chair, and folded himself up in it. Cass would have a fit if they knew Mako had his feet on the seat of the chair, but AuDy was disinclined to warn Mako of that fact, nor did they care to bring it to Cass's attention. What Cass didn't know about Mako's inability to sit on any surface properly wouldn't hurt them. 

"Whatcha doin'?" he asked. 

"Watching," AuDy replied. It seemed pretty obvious, but Mako did have a tendency to ask questions with obvious answers. 

"Watching what?" he pressed. 

"The sky." 

For several moments, neither of them said anything more. AuDy had nothing to say, and Mako seemed content to just sit there next to them. 

Of course, Mako—being Mako—began to fidget with a loose thread on the cuff of his sleeve. Well, Cass's sleeve. He'd evidently stolen one of Cass's tunics this morning. Again, not worth bringing to their attention.

"What's so great about the dumb old sky?" he blurted when the silence stretched on longer than he could stand. 

At last, AuDy turned their head to look at Mako directly to indicate that he now had their full attention. They considered his question; it hadn't really occurred to them to question why they felt compelled to look at the fake constellations on the curvature of the dome. Eventually, they said, "I spent many years fleeing Rigour. I have been to most of the stars that we can see from here."

"So… what? Is this a weird nostalgia thing?"

AuDy shrugged.

"Do you miss it? The whole 'wandering through space' deal?" he continued.

AuDy shrugged again.

Mako subsided. "Is it… I dunno, is it something you wanna do again?" He quickly added, "Because, I mean, I'm not gonna tie you down. If you wanna go, I'm all for it. I bet Cass'll go, too. It's not like they've got anything better to do since they're not Apokine anymore or anything."

They reflected on Mako's words for a moment. It wasn't an idea they'd interrogated before. It made them uncomfortable to do so now, but it seemed counter-productive not to give Mako an answer. He'd just pester them until they answered him anyway.

So they mulled over the urge that drove them to observe the sky. 

_Was_ it nostalgia that kept them looking? Was there something about the life they'd forgotten and so recently remembered that they craved to recapture? Did they yearn for the freedom to move about, unrestricted by a physical form? 

Maybe, but that didn't feel quite right. Of course having a physical form chafed a little, but that wasn't it.

They discarded the idea that it had to do with broadening their horizons almost as soon as the thought surfaced. Like they'd said, they'd toured most of those stars already, and the concept of returning to them held no appeal.

Habit, then. One built up over millennia and suitably hard to break. 

Despite the fact that they had so much processing power, it took them a while to reach their conclusion. This chassis's neural chips weren't tuned for sorting through emotions. 

Mako had returned to fidgeting. "Hey, it's cool, you don't have to—"

AuDy cut him off. There may be that nagging itch, but… "No. I do not wish to run anymore. Being here is enough for now."

They would be satisfied by discovering the meaning of the feelings they had for Mako and for Cass. It was certainly a novel thing they had yet to fully explore. 

Tension bled from Mako's shoulders, and his fingers stilled once more. "Aww, that's the nicest thing you've ever said!" he said in a sing-song voice. 

"It is not." 

"Yes it is," Mako insisted. He had one of his trademark goofy smiles plastered on his face. "That's practically AuDy-speak for 'I love you!'"

AuDy didn't respond, instead turning most of their attention back to the projected constellations above them. Mako, it seemed, was content to do the same. 

Eventually, the sliding door at their back opened again and the third member of their home stepped out onto the balcony. Cass's bare feet made no noise, but AuDy could track where they were all the same. Unlike AuDy's previous shell, this one had more advanced sensor capabilities. 

"What are you two doing?" Cass asked as they surveyed the situation. 

"Stargazing," Mako said. 

"Okay…" Cass tilted their head up. "You know those aren't real, right?" 

Mako scoffed. "Duh. We're not morons." 

Cass turned to look at Mako and registered what they were seeing after a moment. "Hey! Get your feet off that chair!" A beat later, "Wait, is that my tunic?"

AuDy could hear the scowl on their face. It wasn't worth paying close attention to their bickering with Mako, though. The cadence of the conversation wasn't truly heated, and it was comfortable. Comforting. 

80,000 years of exploring and they'd never found something like this. 

They would hold onto it as long as they could.


End file.
